What we do here in the New Jersey Pinelands has far-reaching consequences and sends a message to the rest of the country and, indeed, the world. We cannot pretend that allowing pipelines to run through them is merely a local concern, or that it affects only the corporations or people directly involved.

The fate of our Pinelands is in your hands. This is a moral, ethical issue.

Will you act to preserve this precious, unique, wild place, or will you not? Will you abide by your mandate to preserve and protect the Pinelands as spelled out in the Comprehensive Management Plan, or not? Will you act as if this is just a local matter or business deal, or will you recognize your role in the relentless march of climate change?

Like it or not, accept it or not, we have all been thrust into the forefront of a cataclysmic climate event. What does your conscience and good sense tell you when you see rising temperatures year after year, each one breaking the record of the previous year as being "the hottest year on record"?

What does your conscience say when you see the breaking off of an ice shelf in the Antarctic the size of the state of Delaware, or the invasion of the Southern Pine Beetle into our beautiful forests, or increasingly intense droughts and storms that displace entire communities and even kill? New Jersey has been declared second only to Louisiana in projected problems with flooding from the rising sea and Delaware Bay. The Great Barrier Reef, which is 25 million years old, is dying from the effects of increasingly warming seas.

These are but a few of the disastrous effects of the warming planet. Can any of us in good conscience and sound mind deny the overwhelming scientific evidence that the burning of fossil fuels, including natural gas, is the main driver of climate change? Can we deny that the preservation of our forests is one way to slow it down?

We count on you, the members of the Pinelands Commission to do the right thing – to act as your mandate commands, to protect our Pinelands from the invasion of more pipelines. Future generations will look at what you have done in these challenging times and will judge your actions. They will live with the consequences of what you do today.

As you consider approving yet another fossil fuel project, the New Jersey Natural Gas pipeline proposed to run through the Pinelands, we hope you will be guided by your consciences and your obligation to protect this precious forest, unique in all the world. We who love the Pinelands urge you to vote no to any more pipelines.

Your impact on us here today and on our children cannot be overestimated.

Comments on this matter may be sent by mail or email by 5 p.m. Aug. 2: New Jersey Pinelands Commission; P.O. Box 359; New Lisbon, NJ 08064; email: njngcomment@njpines.state.nj.us.